Aspen Gets an Update With Several New Openings

The southwest’s glitziest ski destination is even more stylish this peak season (pun intended), thanks to a few new openings.

The Bed

The St. Regis Aspen Resort just emerged from a $40 million overhaul and feels like a gilded age mountainside manor: there’s a solarium, a sweeping spiral staircase, and rooms with custom leather Ralph Lauren beds and freestanding marble tubs (970-920-3300; doubles from $989).

Skiers of Buttermilk Mountain’s black diamond and gladed powder runs will love the sleek new Tiehack Express quad chair lift, which shuttles them up the eastern face— some 1,600 vertical feet—in less than seven minutes.

The Eat

After years of speculation, there will finally be a new resto-bar in the 1880s-era Wheeler Opera House: Justice Snow's (named for the Justice of the Peace at the time the Opera House was built). Inspired by Aspen’s mining-camp roots—hence the antique copper-top bar and “Machine age” light fixtures made from vintage bicycles—it will serve lamb steaks with sweet potato– ricotta gnudi (phone number and prices not available at press time; opening mid-January).

The Drink

The Division Bar and Café, named for a U.S. Army division that trained nearby during WWII, serves killer cocktails that shake off the mountain chill: The Dirty Harry is a potent mix of Silver Tree vodka, Campari, fresh grapefruit juice, and Hawaiian volcanic salt (312 S. Mill St.).